Man fleeing police crashes into vehicle in South Baltimore

An accident scene is shown at Washington Boulevard and South Carey Street.

An accident scene is shown at Washington Boulevard and South Carey Street. (Justin Fenton)

Justin Fenton, The Baltimore Sun

Meddaugh Ambrose had parked on the west side of South Carey Street on Thursday afternoon during a trip to get lunch when, for reasons she can't quite pinpoint, she moved her car to the other side of the street.

That move would prove fortuitous. Moments later, a blue Honda came flying down Carey Street, hitting a pickup truck passing through the intersection at Washington Boulevard and sending both vehicles spinning in a twisted wreck that came to rest behind a light pole — right where Ambrose's car had been.

The driver, police said, was fleeing from an officer who had approached the man's vehicle in the Mount Clare Junction area, and after the wreck he climbed out and ran.

According to the police report released Friday, three officers were working in unmarked when they saw what they believed to be a drug deal, prompting them to follow the Honda to a shopping center on West Pratt Street. When one officer approached the vehicle, police said the driver of the Honda attempted to hit the officer and drove off.

After speeding through a red light and striking a gray Toyota pickup truck, the report said, the driver climbed out and took off on foot.

"The guy immediately put down the [car] window, jumped out, looked both ways and ran," said Ambrose, 28, who lives in Annapolis and works in the area.

Police identified the driver late Thursday as Delvon Young, 26, of Baltimore.

Officers caught up to the driver in a nearby alley in the rear of the 1300 block of Carroll St., where the man could be seen sitting handcuffed and bloodied. Wearing a white tank top, jeans and gray sneakers, he lay against the officer's car, surrounded by police.

He was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said.

He left behind in the wreckage a woman and a 1-year-old who had been riding with him, though a Fire Department spokesman said that the child was not seriously hurt.

The woman, a 26-year-old who was identified as Rhenadah Bowsell , suffered what witnesses described as a gruesome arm injury and could be heard yelling, "My baby! My baby!"

She told police she and Young were aware the officers were trying to stop them, the police report said. "I told him to stop the car. I told him you were police and that he should stop. I told him my baby was in the car and not to do this," according to the report.

Boswell could not be reached for comment Friday.

While the officers were in plainclothes, they wore black vests with "POLICE" written across the chest, the report said.

The crash was captured on video at a nearby convenience store, whose owner had it queued up on a screen divided into fours and was playing it for visitors by request. "Twelve seconds," he told the observers, referring to the second mark in the video when the crash occurred.

A police officer, driving a silver unmarked car, arrived on the scene more than 10 seconds later, a time stamp on the video showed.

Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said police will conduct an investigation into whether the accident was preventable, as a matter of protocol.

In the aftermath of the collision, the truck rested on top of the sedan, and a team of firefighters worked to extricate its driver. Brennan said the 49-year-old truck driver was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center with minor injuries.

Large crowds gathered around the two crime scenes, snapping cellphone pictures and spreading word that the man had left a woman and child behind at the accident. One man, himself holding a child, encouraged others to boo the driver as he was loaded into an ambulance. He indeed booed, though nobody else joined in.

Another man, David Dougherty, 30, said he was standing in the block when he saw the crash and watched the driver take off running. He said he contemplated tackling the man, then decided instead to step into his path to slow him down. The whole incident stunned him, he said.

"I've never seen a crash like that in my entire life," Dougherty said.

After ambulances and firetrucks cleared the scene, detectives wearing gloves picked through the items from the open trunk of the sedan. A spare tire, several pairs of shoes and jeans, and a child's pink backpack lay on the ground.

Ambrose sat in her parked car. Police told her she was free to leave because the officer had witnessed the crash, making her statement unnecessary, but she lingered.

"My whole car would've been part of that," she said, thinking back to her decision to move to the other side of the street. "I was crying at first. I couldn't help not crying."

Young has been charged with first and second degree assault, and two counts of reckless endangerment, online court records show.